Prayers Answered

We are taking a break from sharing about our busy weekend last weekend (we told you it was super busy) to share something really cool that happened yesterday.

A little over two years ago we did a blog about one of our brothers. You can click here to read it for the first time or to refresh your memory.

The blog was about a young man named Josimar.

He had gone to the drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility that our church family helps out with. He completed the program successfully but a few months later he fell back into drugs.

In that blog two years ago we asked you to pray for Josimar and for him to allow Christ to knock down any strongholds that he had allowed satan to build up in his heart. We also asked you to pray for him to go back to the recovery center.

Sometimes God gives an immediate answer, sometimes his answer is no and sometimes he gives an answer but it takes a long time to receive it.

Josimar would be response C.

He returned for treatment and God healed him again from his addictions.

He has since completed the program, stayed super strong and has moved to São Paulo to be a missionary.

There are many people and different church families in POA that support Josimar financially. We had a houseful of people from those churches in our house yesterday to hear Josimar tell about his ministry.

Josimar and the other missionaries there deal with homeless people, prostitutes, transvestites, children and addicts. He works in an area that is named Crack Land.

They give showers, cut hair, shave beards, give food, have soccer teams, help with finding jobs, have a recovery center, have a house for people that leave the recovery center but need more help before they are ready to re-enter society but most importantly they love on people in the name of Jesus. Of course, as missionaries, they teach God's word but the most important thing they do is "be" Jesus to these people who are unloved by the majority of the people in the city.

Hearing about his ministry reminded me of how Jesus just loved on those that most people wanted nothing to do with.

Yesterday we had around forty people in our house to hear how God is working and blessing people in São Paulo through Josimar.

He shared how God has just knocked all of his preconceptions (like what transvestites are like) down to the ground.

After everyone left I went back and looked at the blog from 2009 and the picture of Josimar. I then looked at the picture I took of our brother yesterday and I realized how much God had worked through your prayers to save Josimar. Literally saved his life.

He is a new man in Christ. He has been transformed. He is winning souls (souls that are forgotten, or invisible, by everyone else......but Jesus) for the kingdom.

He encouraged us and reminded us of how big our God is and how He loves everyone equally.

My prayer is that this blog would encourage you to stay faithful in your prayers. I definitely need that reminder. I pray also that Josimar's testimony will encourage you and remind you that God NEVER gives up on us and He loves us all the same.

I pray that you will be inspired, through Josimar, to love on an invisible person in the name of Jesus.

My girlfriend and I grew up in church families but we didn't see people getting their hands dirty with invisible people. We know that it might be uncomfortable to us but we can't deprive God of what He wants to do through us. I had many preconceptions about drug addicts until we started praying with them, sharing meals with them, talking with them and being around them. God took a sledge hammer to my preconceptions. He's ready to do the same with you.

Our God is a God of transformation and He uses us to do His work.